Competition makes for better schools

In a September 2011 statewide poll, 64 percent of Alaskans supported this concept. (To review the survey, go to akchoice.org.)

The public is not convinced government is doing an adequate job of educating our K-12 students.

At the Anchorage Mayor's Summit on Education, national leaders told us we are on the bottom rungs in national testing. There is a nationally expressed belief that change is needed. The president, Congress and most of the state legislatures are addressing the problem.

There is a strong belief good education comes from competition.

Government monopoly doesn't produce the best of anything. Competition allows creativity and development of new ideas and systems.

Second, parents bring a child into life. They accept the responsibilities and obligations to raise that child into adulthood and become part of the American dream.

An impediment to fulfilling those obligations is the limitation of sending their children to public schools.

There are other schools but they are prohibitively expensive. In Anchorage, for example, a non-public school ranges from $4,000 to $12,000 per student per year. All Alaskans pay taxes to support K-12 education but only those children who go to a government school actually receive a free education.

Parents know their children best. They love them and have the responsibility of raising them to be the best they can be. Some want their child to get schooling that emphasizes discipline. Others want an emphasis in school on sports, languages, religious philosophy or their culture.

Some parents of children with special challenges want those aggressively addressed in their schools. The majority of parents don't have that choice because of the substantial cost to send their child anywhere other than public school.

Per the survey, if cost were not a consideration, 39 percent of parents would send their children to public school, 30 percent to private school, 15 percent to a charter school and 11 percent would home-school.

Currently, about 85 percent of Alaska children go to public school and 15 percent are in all others.

The goal of this legislation is that each K-12 child receive the best education available for that child.

Our government spends lots of money on K-12 education. Opening education to competing sources where parents make the school choice will result in the best educated child.

In the long run, it will result in a less costly education system. In the short run, cost could increase as we would be picking up the tuition parents currently pay for non-public schools.

The proposed legislation provides that tuition and fees at a non-public school paid by the government are not to exceed the state and local funds the school districts spend to educate a similar child. The current cost for non-public schools is from one-half to two-thirds the cost of public schools.

The National Education Association vehemently opposes this legislation, as do some members of local school boards and school superintendents. Their primary argument is that it may take money away from public education.

The existing educational establishment has always said they can improve K-12 education if just given more money.

The battle for K-12 parental choice education is moving across the country. Last year, 13 states improved laws regarding parental choice. A dozen additional states are actively pursuing new laws to provide parental choice and improve education.

In the Alaska Legislature, HB145 or SB106 cover the proposed statutory change.

The constitutional change is in HJR16 or SJR8. The public will have the final say, as the statute is ineffective without the constitutional amendment, which would be on the ballot in the general election in November.

Legislators need to hear from you now.

Tom Fink was mayor of Anchorage from 1987 to 1994.